This blog will present news items about the motion picture business, with emphasis on lower budget, independent film in most cases. Some reviews or commentaries on specific films, with emphasis on significance (artistic or political) or comparison, are presented. Note: No one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"!

About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Friday, January 16, 2015

"American Sniper": once the biography of Chris Kyle gets going, it sweeps you away

I did get to the one-day sneak of “American Sniper”,
directed in the quiet, pacing style typical for Clint Eastwood, late Thursday
night in a sold-out auditorium at AMC Courthouse (with the reclining seats) in
Arlington. The presentation was not
IMAX, but seemed to be extended digital, in full anamorphic (“Cinemascope”) in
all scenes. (It’s worthy to note that generally features shown in IMAX are not
entirely shot in the process, only selected scenes, and not in full anamorphic. It’s not clear that it pays to use it.)

The movie, adapted by Jason Hall, is adapted from Chris Kyle’s
own book (written with Scott McEwen and James Defelice). There is a good biography on Wikipedia here
which could be read before seeing the movie, link.

The film starts with the notorious shot (in Iraq) of a
female carrying a bomb, before the movie then goes through a half hour of
backstory, starting with his strict upbringing in Texas. This part of the film is rushed and a little
superficial, which is understandable given the need to stay within about two
hours length. (I run into the same
problem with backstories in my own novel, especially early chapters that give
summaries of each major character.) The rodeo
injury is hardly mentioned, and the Navy Seal training is covered very
quickly. How did he overcome the injury to become so good as a sharpshooter? I thought, you could make an
interesting indie film about what Army Basic in 1968 was like for someone like
me (and the “knowhow” is in my DADT-3 book). By the way, I did make "sharpshooter" in Basic (47/80), but a lot of guys made "Expert" (60/80).

But once the film gets into his four tours, admixed with his
marriage and home life (and his wife’s having a baby, document in detail you
expect from Morgan Spurlock) it gets into high gear. The battle scenes are even more intense than “The
Hurt Locker” (July 12, 2009) and there is some influence of Kathryn Bigelow in
Eastwood’s own technique.

As for the acting, Sienna Miller is laconic and gritty as
Taya, and appropriately challenging to Chris. For example, once she has the
kid, she demands that Chris allow others to do the sacrificing. As in real life, he says he regrets he didn't save even more soldiers' lives, and he has no regrets about any of the kills. (There is one scene were a kid puts down a bomb just in time.) Chris also says that one of his buddies died over a disloyal letter rather than battle itself. (I thought – should the childless sacrifice
in battle more for those with kids? I
guess it happens. Remember, Clint Eastwood is well known for his libertarian
political views.) But let’s get to
Bradley Cooper as Chris. Bradley Cooper
is often viewed today as the perfect young white Anglo-ancestry American
male. (I think his namesake Anderson
Cooper appears in one CNN clip – when will Anderson have a real part in a
script?) But for this movie, Cooper
apparently gained a bit of weight (going the opposite direction from Jake
Gyllenhaal). He looks flush and bloatware-loaded, and the
scene where a civilian nurse notes his high blood pressure seems fitting. I thought about Morgan Spurlock and “Super
Size Me”.

After Kyle “comes home” he goes through some PTSD and
adjustment, and there is a particularly graphic scene where he helps out
grievously wounded and disfigured veterans (teaching one to use a rifle
again). The film has already launched a
few surprises with prosthetic limbs in domestic scenes (including an encounter
between Kyle and a soldier whom he had saved).
But suddenly we see men with arms and legs still attached, but horribly
scarred and remodeled in various ways, where one would have expected
amputations and prosthetics. These
scenes were probably shot with real veterans.
A critical issue is the ability of such a person to stay in a (marital)
relationship or find a new one. Earlier
films (“Body of War” (April 7, 2008) and “Fighting for Life” (March 20, 2008)
deal with this. One of the concerns
earlier in my own life was that my “presence” disrupted the ability of others
to deal with this possibility after taking risks that I would avoid.

As the closing credits start, the film roll explains briefly Kyle's death stateside at the hand of a veteran, and shows the funeral procession to the stadium in Arlington, TX. Again, this important detail seems glossed over.

The official site is here. This is another Warner Brothers and Village
Roadshow collaboration. I wish WB would always
use its Casablanca music when introducing its films, but Eastwood often wants
no music.

I barely missed seeing this film in 2014 when I was in NYC Dec, 29. I didn't get to Regal Union Square quite on time and then had a train to catch. This film should not have been held up for regular viewing (and neither should have "Selma", which DC got to see on Christmas day).

The scenes in Iraq are filmed in Morocco.

Michael Moore has created some controversy about the film by saying that "sniping" is a "cowardly" way to do battle, an odd notion. And Seth Rogen ("The Interview", Dec. 27) made an odd comparison to "Inglourious Basterds", reviewed Aug 28, 2009 (story).

Zack Beauchamp of Vox Media has criticized the film's account of why we got involved in Iraq, here.

Filmdrunk has this disturbing report about the reaction of some people, reminding one of "The Interview",here.

NBC News reports the mixed reaction of today's Bagdad residents, who depend on an unreliable Iraqi government and military to keep ISIS at bay, here.

Analytics

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at JBoushka@aol.com.

At billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com , the privacy of my visitors is of extreme importance to me. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com and how it is used.

Log Files Like many other Web sites, billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com does not use cookies.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com .
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following link.

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on my site. My advertising partners include ....... Google Adsense

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com 's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.

Especially for EU visitors: This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. For more info visit https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/